Canonesa,
Convoy HX72 & U-100
This site describes the events surrounding the loss
of the Canonesa, the attack on Convoy HX72, and the
exploits of the U-boat which sank seven ships in just
over three hours; U-100, captained by Joachim Schepke.

World War II Timeline ... 1944

*** 1944 ***

Date

Event

Web Site

1944

World War II Veteran Interview75th Infantry Division

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January 8, 1944

In January l944 my father was on a cargo boat tranporting
live horses, about two-thousand of them (I think)
along the coast of Norway, a short, night-time trip.....the
boat was hit and sank, only three men survived and
my father was one of them only because he had taken
over nightwatch for a sick buddy. Talk about God
looking out for him. My father jumped into the ocean
and started swimming as the boat sank. He woke up
in an Oslo hospital three days later, had been picked
up by a Norwegian fishingboat and after thawing
out he was perfectly all right. While swimming in
that icy water and before he lost consciousness,
he promised God to take his children to America
if he got out of this trouble and he did.

Oral history provided by the decendants of Nathanael
Werner, born August 16, l914 in Rumania, died January
9, 1979 in Canada........there are now eight adult
grandchildren and four great-grandchildren enjoying
the freedoms of what he fought for more than fifty
years ago.

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January 17, 1944

Battle for the Gustav Line in Italy begins with
an Allied troop attack on the German lines. Germans
hold up attack at Monte Cassino.

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January 22, 1944

Operation Shingle starts with Allied landing on
Anzio, Italy beaches. Allies only progress seven
miles before German troops under General Kesselring
pin the Allies down.

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May 11, 1944

Allies begin decisive assault against German lines
in Italy and by May 17 had reached 25 miles behind
German positions forcing German withdrawl from Monte
Cassino.

October 1944

An American medium tank hit a Japanese land mine in surging forward to the Tacloban Air Strip during the early stages of the Philippines invasion on Oct. 20. Here, one of the wounded from the wrecked tank is being bandaged by a medical corpsman. 10/20/1944

The liberation of the Philippine Islands by the Allies begins.

Task Group 38.3 in line as they enter Ulithi anchorage after strikes against the Japanese in the Philippines. USS LANGLEY, TICONDEROGA, WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH DAKOTA, SANTA FE, BILOXI, MOBILE, and OAKLAND. (National Archives)